AUD/USD steadies around mid-0.7700s in choppy day
- AUD/USD is struggling to find direction on Friday.
- US Dollar Index stays a little below 92.00.
- Market reaction is likely to remain subdued in the remainder of the day.
The AUD/USD pair climbed to its highest level since late February at 0.7850 on Thursday but reversed its direction to close the day deep in the negative territory. Although the pair edged slightly lower during the Asian trading hours and touched a daily low of 0.7724, it didn't have a tough time erasing its losses. As of writing, the pair was virtually unchanged on the day at 0.7755.
DXY consolidates Thursday's gains below 92.00
In the absence of significant fundamental drivers, AUD/USD is struggling to make a decisive move in either direction. The US Dollar Index, which registered strong gains on the back of surging US T-bond yields on Thursday, is staying relatively quiet around 91.90 as the benchmark 10-year US T-bond yield is staging a technical correction and losing around 2% on a daily basis.
Earlier in the day, the data from Australia showed that Retail Sales in February declined by 1.1% on a monthly basis. This reading followed the 0.5% increase recorded in January and came in worse than analysts' estimate of +0.5%. Nevertheless, the negative impact of this disappointing data on the AUD remained short-lived.
The US economic calendar won't be offering any macroeconomic data releases in the remainder of the day and AUD/USD is likely to continue to move sideways.
Technical levels to watch for